


Care and Keeping

by Blackcatbrownbat



Series: Care and Keeping [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cute, Dreams, F/M, Fluff, Love, Nurturing, Romance, snape - Freeform, soulmate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24185029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackcatbrownbat/pseuds/Blackcatbrownbat
Summary: A mysterious bond, a powerful nobody with unprecedented power, a snide spirt guide and a multitude of secrets yet to be revealed.When a young woman who has never before been exposed to magic causes a near fatal magical accident of exceptional power, higher powers must step in. The decision is made not to Punish her, but to teach her, with snarky spirit guide Severus Snape. Can she learn to control her powers and use them for the better? Can he learn to hold his tongue and care for someone truly? Why was he chosen to be her guide and what is the strange bond that connects them? As threats of darkness and the past loom before them they struggle and hurry to find the answers. Only one question seems impossible to answer, will they ever be able to get along?
Relationships: Severus Snape/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Care and Keeping [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1745473
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	1. A Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Lovers! So this is a new series I’m going to be working on until completion this quarantine. This is my first work published on AO3 but I have used other sites to publish Fics before. I have about 9 years of fic writing experience, but I’m getting back into writing for the first time in quite a while so I hope you like it! Later chapters will become mature and will have Sexual content. I aim to publish at least once or twice a week, but hopefully more.
> 
> Anyway, Severus needs a hug and he deserves much better then what he got. So here’s my take on his much deserved happy ending. Enjoy!

“Things are finally okay, now.” I thought to myself letting the warm summer breeze caress my face. “Over, Over and done.” The cicadas picked up a steady hum in the background, their song sweet and sticky as honey and humidity of the marsh lands. “ Time to rest now, no more fighting just this body and this mind.”

I sip on my tea, almost gone cold from being cradled in my palms and being blown over by the breeze. A drop trickled down from the lip of my cup and onto my pinky causing me to wince at the sensation of the liquid. A drop of tea falling onto my finger, building a fire and watching the sunset, these were my worries and priorities, such small and percious things. Long gone were the days of violence and suspicion and pain. The severance of course was unbearable but this level of peace was unprecedented.

I opened my eyes to the moment, slowly savoring it. The flat plane of the marsh teamed with new life of summertime, the fauna of the area settling in for the night, making a home in the dancing reeds and tall jaded grass. Lazy Life as it all had become now. The marsh stretched out beyond the plane, separating the pieces of land like a puzzle, all perfectly imperfectly connected together in its own little ecosphere, in which I now and forever belonged. The sunset loomed before me painting the beauty of the most perfect sherbet sky amid the grassy and water plane meeting in perfect harmony.

It was all perfect, a forever, a happily ever after. 

“ Giving gratitude again my love.” Immediately his voice settles me, dark and sweet like velvet and coffee, a juxtaposition to the surroundings and the perfect finishing touch. He slips his arms around my waist pulling himself into me and I can't help but rest my back against his chest. The security of this stance is unprecedented, I take a deep breath in and allow myself to let go completely. His chin finds a perch on the crook of my neck and he sets it there gently. We melt into each other in absolute comfort, into the moment and into the sunset. All is good all is done 

“ How could you not?’ I replied sweetly, closing my eyes to appreciate his touch. “ After all that's happened, this is how we ended up. We should indeed consider ourselves lucky.”  
I sense his eyes flickering over the scenery taking in the details just as i had, giving appreciation for the chances life had given us. With any luck we would never run out of chances. 

I knew he loved it here just as I did. A place with open clean air, immaculate sunsets and just the two of us, the two of us together, alive, breathing in sync to our perfect moment.  
“Trust in me love, I thank the higher powers every minute that passes for my existence on this planet.” I feel him borrow his face gently in my hair and lift out a little sigh of breath. “ And of course for you.” 

That goes without saying, I feel his love, In every touch, every word, every breath and beyond that. We are bound to each other by flesh and soul. Incomplete without the other. This place and these moments were now and forever ours to cherish and protect.  
I tilt my head to rest it on his so that we may drink up the sunset together as one. He responds back with a gentle kiss on my hair, taking extra care with every movement as if I may disappear. “ If anyone was to ever think of me as an ungrateful person, know that it never applies to you.” I said strongly, I was sure of this, a fact that no one could prove untrue. 

He smiles, slowly, gently, playfully and I can feel his grin forming against my hair. “ I know my love, though I can't imagine why you continue to allow me in your life.” I could sense the self deprecation before the words slipped out of his mouth, I knew him in that and every way. A moment of gratefulness was always followed by a sense of undeservedness even in the slightest. One of the many things he would just have to get used to I supposed. A sense of stability, ease and love all three of which he had never known before. 

“Never question a good thing.” I replied in a disgruntled and whispered tone. “ You are the best thing in my life, without you it would all be Flavorless.” What I said was entirely true, without him all of the things lying before me would be drained of life. The moments would loose there magic and all would be colorless. 

He knows this too, as true as I know about him. Our connection extends beyond one sidedness, something rare to find in this day and age. The bond is never painful, he always takes care of it, nurtures it. Though he has Lost much in his life this is the one thing he’s not keen to loose on the slightest.

Turning my head a bit more, I meet with him cheek to cheek, our lips in the perfect meeting place resting against each other's foreheads. My eyes are closed as to take in every moment of our happy ending. “ I love you.” I said clearly and softly as my heartbeat slows and our breath starts to sync. “ Know this to be true.”

I can sense his eyes flickering open and shut, slowly, carefully taking it all in. “ I always have and always will.” He pulls back to admire me to say something remarkable and sweep me off my feelt all over gain. He starts, shakily but sure in his statement. “ Look at me.” 

I open my eyes slowly in little flickers, savoring our moment as it is now and will forever remain in my memory. My eyes go to meet his, slow and doe eyed like but when I reach them there’s nothing there. The scenery fades away into a flurry subconscious and I register the sound of my morning alarm. 

“Another dream?” I whisper into the void of my room waking up in a groggy and disappointed gaze. “ And that was the best one yet.” It was always so disappointing to me to wake up without that feeling of comfort and security that my dreams provided. Well, that he provided. I could still hear his voice, echoing in my ears, feel the wind against my face, the warmth of his arms around my chest.

In all of my dreams of him all of my life I had never seen his face, but I knew his voice as sure as I knew my own. And his sent, so distinguishable to me that I could pluck him out of a crowded subway station. But of course this had never happened. “ And it never will.” I reminded myself turning onto my back to stare up at the ceiling and asses all of its small imperfections. 

I was breathless and of course as I was, after every dream of this nature, confused and lonely. For years I had been dreaming of that voice, longing for it to ring in my ears when I woke up. But it never did and it never would, leaving me with rapidly fading stolen memories and emotional whiplash. My alarm rang again, signaling it was really time to get up now. Back to reality, back to the real world where nothing was over and done, most of it hadn’t even started yet.


	2. Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our main character Sage receives a distressing phone call and demonstrates her abilities in a show of compassion to an innocent plant. But will this seemingly harmless act result in even further punishment?

“Sage can you grab the front for a second, I’m gonna go have a smoke.” My Manager Melissa grumbled at me while wobbling her way to the back door for her third break that day. Not that I was judging her vices or anything, I would be the last to do so but I was worried about her lungs due to the fact we had only been open for about two hours. I knew “I’m gonna go have a smoke.” Was code for I have some things to deal with and I could really use some nicotine while I do it. Couldn’t hate on her for that. 

“You got it boss.” I remarked, painting a smile on my face. Being up front wasn’t unpleasant, it was just devoid of privacy and therefore no place for day dreaming, my favorite activity. I had tried to figure out the stranger in my dreams a thousand times from a thousand faces I had passed god knows where. Though I knew without a face my search was fruitless, But god if I ever heard that voice I would know him anywhere.

I had frequently painted fantasy’s of walking along some bustling park or settling into a quaint coffee shop only to hear that voice say something mundane somewhere behind me. Maybe it would be “ Just a large please.” Or “ Excuse me miss do you have the time?” Anything would satisfy me. Just to hear that voice in any way would make my life. But then what after that? I always hoped I would turn around with all the grace of a Hollywood starlet and say “Hello sir I’ve been looking for you for such a very long time.” He would look at me and finally, for the first time I would get to see his face, those eyes I had long for, every day since the first dream happened. It didn’t matter if he was handsome, wealthy and well put together or a poor ugly schmuck off the streets, I would protect him with my life in any case.

But these were daydreams with no grounding in reality. I had been having these dreams at least once a week for four years and even before that I could always sense something. It was never dangerous, always comforting, I never felt alone. But I always woke up alone and I never heard that voice in any coffee shop or public park. I knew the most likely cause of my dreamy delusions was an overactive imagination coupled with a sense of stagnation in my life. The dreams were the most exciting thing to happen to me in years, at least up until recently.

As I rounded the corner to the front I was immediately hit by the sticky humidity of Home Grown, the plant nursery I worked and spent most of my time at. I guess you could say I had an affinity for plants, I spent most of my time looking after them and cohabitating with them after all. My Apartment was absolutely covered, wall to floor in plants. Sitting in planters, scattered around the floor, hanging from the walls, dangling from the ceiling. Anywhere I could find a space for them I would and though half of them should have been dead once I saved them from clearance shelves at department stores, they still teamed with life and promise of new blooms. 

Home Grown was much of the same. I was hired on as a holiday assistant to help look after the plants while the college botanist kids ran home for the holidays. After a month of basically a skeleton crew that consisted of me, Mellisa and the owners Tracey and Margaret the plants were growing more vibrant and strong then they ever had before. Shortly after, I was hired on full time and they hadn’t let me go since. After two years of growing strong there wasn’t a doubt in my mind they didn’t plan on it.

Home Grown was a fun place to work. I mostly tended to the plants and on occasion the odd customer who would wonder in looking for a new treasure to plant or some new decor for their lawn. The regulars were plant people much like myself, the real hippie type which always bode well with me. The shop itself was something to be treasured, well as far as workplaces go. It was a little building about the size of a ranch house, almost entirely made of glass. The windows and ceilings let the sun shine in continuously, the humidity from the sprinklers and numerous mechanics of the place caused droplets of water and fog to cover the surfaces constantly. Fans always ran, causing leaves to flap in little whispers and it was always kept at the very comfortable temperature of eighty three degrees Fahrenheit. The merchandise in question was my favorite thing about the job. I was able to care for countless plants, all of them special to me. I had seen vast varieties come in and out of the shop, the opportunity to see the more exotic plants sometimes outweighed all of the other benefits of the job. Nearly every morning when I would walk in and open the place up, my plants were there to greet me with outstretched leaves and vivid blooms. And though some may say I have a screw loose, it always felt like they were happy to see me. 

I vaulted myself into the little wooden high top seat we kept at the counter and slumped onto the dinghy wooden work bench we called the front desk. Only one or two people had been in all day and it wasn’t looking very promising. Most of the time Mellissa liked to take the front, as to socialize on her phone with a place to sit and little interference. I didn’t mind it though, she took the front desk and I tended to the plants, watering, maintancing and propagating them. As far as minimum wage jobs go, I truly couldn’t ask for anything better. The clientele were my kind of people, the setting was beautiful and the merchandise needed me. It didn’t pay too much but the amount of hours I worked made up for it. 

Crossing my pale arms on the table, I let my head fall onto them squarely and began kicking my legs playfully underneath in boredom. My formerly white Converse now caked with dirt and grass stains generated playful clicks as they hit the support beams of the work bench. 

Melissa called it a smoke break but it was more of a lunch period, sometimes she would be outside for a half an hour smoking and talking and carrying on. Truely, I didn’t mind, I liked the privacy of being alone with the plants in the green house, it was comforting. Just me, my thoughts and the greenery.

I focused my attention on a small fern amongst others in a corner of the main room overcrowded with stacks of plants. I used to focus my attention on them until I could feel at one with them, their energies and life lines mine for observation. Sometimes I could hear them, not in words but in natural songs, breezes and rusting, growing in stop motion. Sometimes, if I focused hard enough I could swear I could coerce them to move. But I didn’t do that anymore, not since the incident. 

Thinking about it, I snapped out of my position on the table and stretched my legs out onto the smooth concrete for a walk around the main room. I didn’t like to think about what had happened, what had happened was a mystery in and of itself to me. Life hadn’t been the same since, I was scared of looking at strangers for too long, scared of being even a little on edge, mostly I was scared of myself, of what might happen or what I might do. 

Everything that happened seemed like a weird fever dream and perhaps I would think it was, had I not been able to remember it so clearly. If I distracted myself enough with the munding aspects of everyday life, I could push the memories down enough to not have it at the forefront of my mind. Just some weird hazey dream that I woke up from and everything was okay, no one was hurt and the future was as plain as it had been before. But I knew it wasn’t a dream, someone had gotten hurt and the future was the most uncertain it had ever been. 

I took a turn around the room, mindlessly touching the leaves and reeds of the plants as I passed them by. Work was my true escape, the only place where things were still completely normal. Home was a place where my thoughts roamed free. Everything about my workplace, the brilliant greenery and the soft lightening spilling through the windows, the fresh damp smell of the air and the constant warmth, put me at ease. It was almost like one of my dreams, missing a key element of course. Without that key element no environment, no matter how relaxing could truly put me at ease. 

Rounding a display of fiddle leaf fig trees I noticed a small succulent knocked onto its side that had made its way under one of the sales tables. “ Woah, woah, woah what is going on here?” I whispered to myself and the plant, alone amongst natural friends in the green house. Bending down, I perched on my knees to get a better look. It seemed as if it had been there for quite a while, dry and browning on its leaves, dying. I suppose it had gotten knocked over by some careless customer and no one had noticed it's departure. 

Sighing, I picked it up from the dark spot it had been hiding in and brushed off the muck on the front side of the planter. “ What’s up little bud, someone knock you over?” 

I headed back over to the work bench setting the little succulent down next to the outdated creaking cash register. Having eliminated the immediate worry of getting it set upright, I jogged to the back room for a watering can and some miracle grow. God only knows how long it had been under there, I would have noticed it sooner had I not been absent for a few days when everything happened. I told the owners I was not well, that I had contracted the flu and it got pretty nasty. They didn’t need much convincing, I had never called in before and I was their best worker

Sprinting to the work Bench I took time to pour the water slowly on the little plant, trickling down its stiff brown leaves and into the potting soil below “There you go all better Now.” I gave it a spray of miracle grow for good measure but still I got the sense the damage that had been done was irreversible. The measly little plant would undoubtedly pull through but the dead leaves would make it unappealing to the customers looking for a cute little house plant. Soon someone above me would make the executive decision to compost the little being and I was never keen on that practice. 

There was one way to save it. I let out a huff of indecision and anxiety, stretching my arms behind my head. Mellisa wouldn’t be back in for at least another fifteen minutes and the store was completely empty. If a customer came I could stop immediately but it was a big risk to take, if I didn’t however the little plant would most certainly end up in pieces. 

It would only take a few seconds, what could it hurt? 

Surrendering, I dropped my hands to my sides and slipped into the back room to put my ear up to the beat up back exit door. “ No Adam I’ve told you a thousand times, no other woman around the kids!” Mel was yelling at her boyfriend on the phone again and I knew it would be quite a while before she got off. Their problems didn’t sound easily fixable, especially not over a phone call.

I snaked through the numerous planters and soul bags, scattered across the back room to the front again, briefly considering forgetting about the whole endeavor. What If something went wrong? What could possibly go wrong sage? I thought to myself You’ve done this like fifty times it’ll all be okay. 

Or maybe it wouldn’t be. My mind flashed back to the incident, the screaming echoing in my ears I could still hear it clear as day. Perhaps there were certain precautions I should take now.

Calmly and carefully I made my way to the front door, taking care to check through the window for any incoming customers. The parking lot sat empty and still, apart from mine and Mel’s cars. I flipped the fragile faded open sign to closed and locked the small dingy deadlock restricting access from the outside. Only for a few seconds, I had to be safe. 

Still watching the door, I backed myself into the front desk taking care not to step on anything as I did. Once I was sure the coast was clear I grabbed the little plant and snuck out of view to a small side sitting area we set up for the spring sales season. Teetering it in my hands, I sat it down onto a little mosaic covered table looking at it with a slight sense of reprehension. Mels outside, the doors locked, it’ll die if I dont help it. 

“Okay, I’m gonna give you another chance at life but I better not get condemned for this.” I hovered my palms over the little plant, concentrating on it hard, letting my energy flow into its outstretched leaves. I closed my eyes to further concentrate and focus my energy. Another chance at life, another chance at life. A powerful feeling came over me, a chill of invasive air flowing through my whole body head to toe, through my veins and into the plant. 

Sensing it was done I opened my eyes knowing fully well what would lay before me. Sure enough the succulent was there, green as the day it had been planted and more vibrant then it surely had ever been. I smiled to myself in satisfaction looking at the little life that had been given a second chance. “ See no big deal! Everything’s alright” 

I let out a sigh of relief, all smiles now that nothing had happened. Everything had gone just as it had before, everything was perfectly fine.

Taking care to place the plant in a well lit area, I positioned it as to look good with the rest of the display. There it sat proud and healthy ready to be taken to a good home where it would bloom surely for the rest of its life, as all of my plants had. Home Grown had never had such a good reputation as it had when I started working there and this was no coincidence. 

Finally feeling free to let go of my breath, I let out a sigh of relief and began to unlock the front door to continue life as normal. Still no cars in the parking lot, as if nothing had happened. 

The room was suddenly filled with the sound of ringing and I jumped back startled by the outpouring of sound. Just the phone. It took me a second to realize the ringing wasn’t coming from the storefront phone but instead from my back pocket. Weird I thought to myself no one ever calls me at work 

I pulled out my phone expecting it to be my mom forgetting it was a work day or my friend Isaac calling to drone on about some guy who left him on read. Instead of either of them an unknown number flashed across my screen still ringing with urgency. No number listed, I had a feeling I knew who it was. I could just leave it, let it go to voicemail and carry on with the rest of my day, act like nothing had ever happened. Something told me the repercussions would be a lot worse if I didn’t just pick it up now. 

Shakily I slid the answer button and slowly positioned the phone to my ear “Hello?’

“ Miss sage O’Connell?” The voice on the other end rang through, authoritative and strong exactly what I feared hearing. This wasn’t a sales call, or a wrong number. This is serious business.

“Yes this is she.” My voice was meek and almost a squeaking, I had no idea what the call was about but I knew by the tone of voice that I was in trouble.

“ Hello Miss O'connell, this is Regenold banks with The Magical Congress of the United States of America. You were informed we would be in contact with you. Do you have a minute to talk… Alone?” 

“Y-yes.” I murmured, obviously scared out of my mind. What do you even say to that? A week ago I thought magic was only in books and movies, something from fairytales and what I could do was just some form of nature working in mysterious ways. Never would I have imagined the secret world that lied in our own, completely undetected.

“ I’m calling to inform you that your trial will take place tonight at eight p.m. exactly, an escort will be sent to your resident to escort you to the hearing.” 

My mind was racing a thousand miles an hour, a trial? I was never informed about a trial. They told me something had to and would be done, that I would be contacted eventually with further instructions but nothing about a trial. I knew what I had done, even if unintentionally, was a crime. I didn’t know if I wanted them to help me understand what I could do or run away from it as fast as I could. 

“ Miss O'connell?” The other voice on the end of the line continued, trying to snap me back into reality. I realized then I had complexity zoned out for a good couple of seconds leaving the line in silence. He was waiting for me to reply, or give even just some sign of understanding.

“ Yes, yes I’m here.” 

The speaker on the other end of the phone let out a huff allowing me a slight show of sympathy. “ I know this is hard for you, I know you’re confused but all will be made clear soon.” 

Not knowing what to say I stifled out the only thing I could think of “ I really didn’t mean to do it.” I was nearly in tears, holding my breath waiting for a reply. It was true, I never wanted to hurt anyone, all I had ever done with my gift was help plants. I could’ve never anticipated what happened or the power I possessed.

The other end of the phone was silent for a moment before speaking up again “Eight sharp Miss O'connell, an escort will be there for you at seven promptly, they’ll show you their badge for identification.” There was a brief pause before he continued cautiously. “ And Miss O’Connell I would advise you not to use any more unsupervised magic before this meeting.”

The line clicked signaling the end of the call and it took me a second of blindly listening to the end tone before I realized it was over. They knew what I had done for the plant, even as small as the act was, they knew. In a daze, I lowered my phone slowly from my ear and let it hang there at my thigh. My heart felt as if it was about to beat out of my chest. A trial? An escort? This was all too far official for me, the only trouble I had ever gotten into with the law was a speeding ticket. But this wasn’t the typical law, this was something else, I had no idea what their orders of punishment were.

I heard a rustling from the back room, bags being moved out of the way and dirt being kicked up from the concrete.“Sage are you okay?” Melissa spoke out from the door frame of the back room, barely visible to me. Her phone call had ended, just as mine had. Silently I hoped that her outcome was better than mine.

“Yeah!’ I said snapping myself out of it and into the bubbly worker Everyone expected me to be. I didn’t want to show a sign of something being wrong, I wanted to give no evidence of what I was caught up in. Still there was a quiver in my voice and tearing in my eyes , I knew I had to explain it and came up with a story on the fly. “Just got some upsetting news is all.” My voice was shaky and weak but certain.

Melissa positioned herself to a perch on top of the wooden stool taking back her rightful place and stared at me still unconvinced. I could tell she was worried, but hoped she didn’t care enough to press me “ You wanna talk about it?” 

I knew that no matter what happened it was of the absolute most importance I didn’t talk about it, the repercussions would be far worse if I did, not to mention she would think I was completely crazy. 

“ No, no but thank you Mel.” I turned to her bearing a smile and wiping the tears from my eyes. I nodded to her in thanks still and hoped she would be satisfied with my newly painted expression “ Private family stuff you know how it is.” 

She nodded at me raising her eyebrows as if to say whatever kid and went about scrolling on her phone content with my explanation. Perhaps If I could fool her I could fool my bosses, my friends and eventually my family.

Melissa wasn’t my favorite person in the world by far but I was forever grateful for the fact she was never the type to probe for information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is mostly just more character exposition for Sage. We got to see some of her day to day life, as well as her workplace and a brief peek at her abilities. The upcoming chapter will see her trial as well as an explanation of the incident and the introduction of a certain snide potions master ;) 
> 
> The next chapter will be out sometime later this week or early next week. I hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to comment, subscribe, bookmark or give kudos it’s always appreciated! Until next time Lovers.


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